Christiaan Neethling Barnard (8 November 1922 – 2 September 2001) was a South African cardiac surgeon who performed the world's first successful human-to-human heart transplant. Christiaan Barnard died in September 2001, while on holiday in Paphos, Cyprus. Early reports claimed that he had died of a heart attack, although an autopsy showed his death to be caused by a severe asthma attack